Curtis Norman

Specific Area of Interest within Field: Healthcare Operations and Analytics

Hometown: West Point, UT

Why did you want to be a Kruse Communities of Excellence Scholar?

As an aspiring healthcare leader, I want to be community focused and patient driven. Understanding how to enable organizations to best serve a community is extremely difficult. I wanted the opportunity to learn from communities who are utilizing communities of excellence and Baldrige to leverage their leadership to “sustain vitality, promote opportunity, and create a more equitable society.” Lowell Kruse has a contagious drive to improve community performance, learning from him is a wonderful opportunity.

In what ways will you bring systems and quality thinking to your future career?

My involvement with the communities of excellence has given me a unique prospective. A prospective that would greatly benefit all community leaders, not just leaders in healthcare. There are many programs and methodologies that focus on systematic thinking within an organization, like Baldrige. However, COE is focused on systematic thinking within communities. Meaning each individual sector, organization, and community member has the responsibility to help, promote, and sustain excellence.

How do you plan to contribute to spreading “communities of excellence” across our country now and in the future?

Communities need to thrive and work as one. As a student and in the future, I have the responsibility to help communities define goals and objectives that will allow them to work together. During graduate school I intend to learn as much as I can about communities of excellence and Baldrige. Afterwards, I have the great privilege of teaching others about this great cause and helping communities thrive.

FUN FACTS

What is/was your favorite class?

- Operations Research and Quality in Healthcare

- Healthcare Data and Analytics

What are your favorite hobbies by the season?

- Boating, Camping, Hiking – spring, summer, fall

- Exercising – year round

- I grew up wrestling and spent all my time in a wrestling room during winter… So I’m exploring winter hobbies.

What is something unique about you?

- I love food… This shouldn’t be unique because everyone eats, but I enjoy eating (which is why I’ve come to love exercising).

Favorite place you been to?

- Flaming Gorge Reservoir – I go every year and I’m never disappointed.

Where would you like to live?

- Not sure, however, after this Minnesota winter I can’t live somewhere this cold.

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